Espresso Wifi - Good deal or not?

For €20 you can have WiFi in Italy for a month. Just go to a store and a buy a local SIM card for your smart phone or even your tablet

While I cannot say it is the most amazing value ; I can recommend the product/service.
I would call it more of a luxury service than the lowest cost solution.

I have used them and also other wifi rental services. For an Italy only trip Espresso Wifi was the least expensive of the services I have used. I often use my-webspot.com instead because my trips often involve more than just Italy and Espresso Wifi at least maybe until recently only offered their service in Italy.

Anyway, back to your question:
I am not disputing what Roberto posted in terms of value BUT
not all phones and carriers allow you to take out and pop in a new SIM card.
AND for me the wifi rental gives you 2 extras:
1.) it can provide wifi to multiple phones and tablets all at the same time. Driver needs phone GPS directions, passenger wants their Iphone to work ; backseat child wants to watch a Youtube video, etc... all you need is the one wifi device in your pocket or glove box and you are set.
2.) it switches providers, a regular SIM card my understanding is one provider only. These hotspot devices will switch carriers to who has the best signal as you move about. If traveling all over Italy that can help as some carriers have better coverage than others in certain areas.
3.) Usually not a big deal but saves you a trip to a store and finding a store location since the device is shipped to your hotel and you usually can leave the device with the hotel when you leave or if not just drop it in a mailbox which the main airports have in the departure area. Rental comes with a prepaid stamped padded envelope to pack it back up and send it at the end.

Texting I think would be different ; if Iphone to Iphone I think you can text over Iphone without any costs ; to another phone I don't think regular texts would work with just wifi.
There are plenty of ways to send a message via only wifi though ; countless apps for that.
Facebook messenger just being one of dozens of options.

I was very happy the one time I used Espresso Wifi and actually prefer their device (a little more compact) than the one my-webspot provides.

I just don't understand the benefit of these things - simplicity? People who have laptops and tablets but not smart phones? As noted above, buying a SIM for an unlocked smart phone and just using the phone's hot spot will provide exactly the same thing as these WiFi hotspots, just at a much lower cost - and without having to drag around an extra device, worry about keeping an extra device charged, etc.

Well I tried to cover the advantages in my post which is lengthy so you might not have read it all.

But yes some phones are not unlocked so that would be answer #1 ; not in my case on Verizon but is true on my wife's Iphone on AT&T
Not sure about all phones offer the ability to work as a hot spot with an Italian sim installed (I don't think that is the case but maybe?)
Ipad we own and take with us is a wifi only ipad

The allowance of data seems far greater, if your phone and Italian SIM did work as a hot spot ; I suspect you would be throttled very quickly if you were doing that and streaming videos, surfing the web, etc... on multiple devices off of 1 SIM.

Plus then the convenience and better coverage (it is not tied to one carrier like a SIM in a phone)

Hi Eric

I just made my reservation for an Espresso Wifi device. It ended up being around 65 euros for 9 days with pick up and drop off at the hotel (a HUGE convenience IMO). When I booked it, I was chatting online with a rep who gave me a 10% off coupon.

As to why we chose this option, (1) our phones aren't unlocked so we cannot swap out the SIM cards, (2) it is much less expensive (per device) than any of the international options offered by At&T, and (3) in my experience, hotel wifi is terrible especially if it is free.

I use Android phone's hotspot almost daily in the US (I tend to be out places with my laptop where there's no WiFi). My hotspot works amazingly well. I fail to see how a "portable hotspot" would work much better - maybe it's got a slightly better WiFi radio or something, but WiFi range or speed hasn't been an issue for me. The phone is almost always right next to the laptop. I can't see how/why a portable hotspot would get better mobile reception than my phone - might be the opposite.

Last May, I used my Dutch Vodafone SIM in my Android phone for my 17 day trip through Slovenia, Italy, and France. I had 3GB of data to use but used only 2GB (at the end, I wasn't even bothering to connect the phone to WiFi anymore, was trying to use it all up). I checked my Android's data use summary, and about half of my data use over the 17 days was from the hotspot. I used it a ton on trains especially with my laptop - long train trips during that visit. I was never throttled and can't see why I would be? Streaming videos would eat up the data pretty fast so I avoided it - but Vodafone shouldn't care how fast I use up my data; if I used it up, then I need to buy more from them!

I have heard that iPhones may not work well for hotspot (tethering) with some SIMs, though, but I have no personal experience with them. YMMV.

Regarding you unfortunate folks locked into AT&T: FYI, you might look into buying an unlock code for your phone on eBay (price varies by make/model). I've done this a few times including at least one AT&T phone and it worked fine. Your phone has one unique unlock code that simply needs to be generated, like a password; AT&T knows this code of course, but it can also be deduced by some people who sell these codes. When you buy a code, you're simply buying the same code AT&T will eventually give you.

I suppose some folks might fear they are doing something wrong by buying one of these codes, but I don't think they can actually tell (without physically seeing the phone) whether it is unlocked or not. Could be it violates their TOS. No idea.

Another option, I'd think, would be simply to pay off the rest of the phone cost early; once you have paid off your phone, if your phone is paid off, then AT&T themselves will unlock it for you.

If you don't need much data the Wifi rental costs probably do not make much sense.
If you expect to use a large amount of data (letting your children stream videos or making facetime calls back home to grandma ; those are the 2 main reasons I eat up large chunks) than the cost becomes much closer and the convenience of it may weigh out.
Case by case

Sure, if you really use a TON of data and can almost never use WiFi? You might get your money's worth. I suspect this isn't the typical case, though. I don't really have a need to stream videos or do Skype video chats etc. when not on WiFi, which I find works well enough at most hotels. I suspect the kids can live without streaming videos constantly.

Sounds like a great deal.
Although this is a great alternative...the biggest issue (at least for us family of 4) for us would be the limitation of being tethered to the device and not have the freedom to move about.
Case in point...for our Paris trip a few months ago...my girls decided to do museums, and the missus and I decided to walk around a different part of the city. Since we all had our own international SIM on our iPhones, we were able to call, text and communicate and not rely on single hotspot.

I do realize that not everyone has unlocked phones so it's whatever will fit your need is what all that matters.

*NOTE: for Verizon iPhone customers....the iPhone 6/S and current iPhone models are already unlocked. Even if it's not fully paid off.

AND for me the wifi rental gives you 2 extras:

2.) it switches providers, a regular SIM card my understanding is one provider only. These hotspot devices will switch carriers to who has the best signal as you move about. If traveling all over Italy that can help as some carriers have better coverage than others in certain areas

The SIM card on your phone will allow you to "roam" on other cellular/mobile service providers. Unless you specifically configure your phone and disable roaming.

*NOTE: for Verizon iPhone customers....the iPhone 6/S and current iPhone models are already unlocked. Even if it's not fully paid off.

Same with all Verizon Android phones (except prepaid) - though Verizon has only recently announced that they are planning to start locking new phones again as a "security measure."

If you have an AT&T or Verizon smart phone, you can get international roaming for $10/day (which is probably unlimited data these days, too) and use your phone's hotspot to provide WiFi to multiple other devices, just like one of these hotspots can. If you can rent one of these WiFi hotspots for less than $10/day, I guess you COULD save some money - but you also lose the benefit of having that original phone able to make/receive calls on its regular phone number. I still think you either buy a local SIM or just pay the $10/day for the international roaming on your phone.

If you have an AT&T or Verizon smart phone, you can get international roaming for $10/day (which is probably unlimited data these days, too) and use your phone's hotspot to provide WiFi to multiple other devices, just like one of these hotspots can. If you can rent one of these WiFi hotspots for less than $10/day, I guess you COULD save some money - but you also lose the benefit of having that original phone able to make/receive calls on its regular phone number. I still think you either buy a local SIM or just pay the $10/day for the international roaming on your phone.

For convenience...I agree that paying $10/day is the way to go. You don't have to replace your SIM and it's a seamless worry-free option, If you don't mind paying that premium.

On our last trip, I paid £10 ea (£40 total) for 4 Vodafone SIMs that gave each of us 1GB to use for our 7 day trip.

Instead of paying $280 (4 phones @ $10/day X 7 days)...I spent roughly $52 for the Vodafone SIM option. So this was a big cost savings for us.

The espresso wifi is a good deal, as long as everyone doesn't plan on being separated with the group.